The Note Wars
by Corey M. Smith
Summary: Many Years ago, a brutal war is waged by two mysterious men in Feudal Japan, and a young boys life is changed forever....
1. Prologue

Many years ago, in Feudal Japan, a brutal war was waged. Two factions fought desperately, serving their mysterious leaders, who each claimed to be a god. Though close to the truth, they were both indeed mortal, possessing only the power to kill anyone they met, often in mysterious ways.

And while this war was fought in the human realm, another was fought in the realm of _true_ gods, the shinigami. The war between the shinigami had been ongoing now for close to a thousand years, much longer than it's human counterpart for which it was responsible.

It began about a millennium earlier, when the Shinigami King had decided to create the notes.

Since the beginning of time, shinigami had been given the power to freely control the death of humans, taking it as their sworn duty to eliminate corrupt humans, and create a peaceful world for the righteous. Even the Shinigami realm itself had prospered.

But then it all changed. A lone shinigami had traveled to the human world, and after spending years there, had it's sense of justice rreplaced by greed. It decided that it would rule the human world all itself, and remained there, calling other shinigami to join it's new world.

This was an obvious problem, one the Shinigami King had never encountered before, and that he needed to end. Unable to leave the Shinigami realm himself, and wanting to avoid conflict, he came up with a plan to stop the rogue shinigami from killing, as well as to place rules on how any and all Shinigami (besides himself) were allowed to kill.

And so, he created the Death Notes, delegating all the shinigami's power into them. Initially, the plan worked well. The rogue shinigami were stopped, while the ones remaining in the Shinigami realm had received their notes from the king, and were continuing judgment.

But it wasn't over yet. Angered at the loss of their power, the rogue shinigami returned from the human realm, demanding to receive their notes from the king. He of course refused, and killed the original corrupted shinigami. The rest fled, before regrouping, and declaring war on the still righteous shinigami.

Thus began the great war of the Shinigami.

Before the war, the shinigami realm had actually been a peaceful, beautiful place...but the war destroyed all that, and eventually, the greed and hatred of the corrupt shinigami affected the realm itself, as well as the rest of the shinigami, and even the King. They were no longer righteous, and few took any time to eliminate humans, instead concentrating on the war.

The losses were high, considering that few shinigami had ever died before this point. At one point, the King was forced to begin creating new Shinigami, in order to ensure that they didn't die out all together. Eventually they forgot why they were even fighting in the first place, yet continued anyways. And then finally, nearly a thousand years later, the end seemed near, and the two remaining rogue shinigami fled back into the human realm with their Death Notes.

Corrupted, and no longer caring about humankind, the King and the rest of the 'righteous' shinigami decided not to pursue, and the King, in order to ensure that they did something at least resembling their original job, made it so that that shinigami had a limited life-span that could only be extended by killing humans, and taking theirs.

Unfortunately, the war wasn't quite over yet...


	2. Purpose

It was early evening in this, a small village in feudal Japan. The sun had yet to fall below the horizon, yet it was already fairly dark. Storm clouds hung in the sky, not yet releasing rain, but threating all those below with bright flashes of lightning, and the deep boom of thunder. Under normal circumstances, the villagers would all be inside their small but comfortable homes, gathered around a warm fire. But these were not normal circumstances, and presently, almost all of the villagers were outside, scattered about, and most noticeably, dead.

Another noticeable oddity, was the presence of many soldiers, who were also dead. They too were scattered around the ground, slowly rotting, or being devoured by the countless scavengers that had gathered here to feast on the multitude of fresh corpses.

At first glance, it would seem that they were in fact the only living things around, but a closer look would reveal a few, struggling forms, trying desperately to escape the hellish nightmare they'd become a part of. Most of them were soldiers who had managed to loose a limb, or several, in the battle that had occurred earlier in the day, but one, was not. Carefully stepping over the bodies, was a seemingly unharmed boy, who cautiously made his way to a small building on the south edge of the village.

He was going home, to see for himself what had happened to his family...to see if by chance they had survived the massacre from which he'd been able to escape.

He'd been out in the forest when the the two armies had arrived, and had stayed hidden in a tall tree nearby till the battle had ended. His village had unfortunately served as the battleground where the two legions met, and fought, and it had become apparent almost immediately, that neither side cared if the villagers died in the process. At one point, one of the leaders had actually made it a point to eliminate them, as to lessen the confusion, a strategy that had apparently worked, as the opposing army soon had to retreat north, while his returned back west, to their capital city.

As the boy came closer to his family's dwelling, he caught a glimpse of a small, black, rectangular object, laying on the ground. If he weren't in such a hurry, or preoccupied with visions of what could be inside his home, he would have stopped to look, but seeing as he was, he didn't even turn his head to look.

Finally, he got to the small building, just as it began to rain. The door was already slid open, letting in what little light there was outside, as well as the cold rain that was blown inside by an occasional gust of wind. As he walked in, his eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and slowly, he began to make out several figures scattered through out the room...

None of them moved, and all were surrounded by dark, crimson stains. He looked around, and was able to find each of his family members. His father...mother...and finally, slumped in a corner, his young sister. He felt his heart drop, and fell to his knees, letting his head fall forward, and tears flow from his eyes as blood had flowed from his family.

After what seemed a lifetime, he finally made himself stand, and muttering a small prayer, he left, unsure what he would do now, or where he would go...

That's when he finally saw it. The small object that he'd glimpsed earlier. It looked like it was a notebook of some type, and as he got closer he noticed, that despite the fact that it was raining, it remained completely dry.

"W-what is this...?" He found himself saying aloud. He stopped and looked around, then bent over to pick it up, stopping as he noticed a small amount of something that was indistinguishable from sand and ash, scattered on the ground all around him. It too remained dry, despite the rain.

He stopped and looked around again, then finally picked up the notebook. It felt normal, beside the fact that it was dry. Perhaps it was just made out of some special material...?

He opened it up and flipped through the pages. Most were empty, but a decent number towards what he assumed was the front had dozens of names written down, with the words "killed in battle" written underneath each one.

_"A list of the casualties?"_ He thought, reading down the list, before finally closing the notebook. He decided he'd keep it, just in case it turned out to be worth something.

As he turned to leave, he almost had a heart attack, laying on the ground behind him, staring intently at his face, was a large...thing. It looked insect like, yet strangely human at the same time, and whatever it was, it appeared to be dying.

"W-what are you?!" the boy asked, taking a step back.

The creature, took a deep breath, and opened it's large, fanged mouth to speak, "I am...a shinigami..." It cackled slightly, "And now I'm dying, ironic, is is not?"

The boy stood there, unsure of what to do, or say, and clutched the notebook firmly in his arms, somehow taking comfort in it, as it was his only real possession.

"That...notebook." It said, struggling to speak, "It is...not an ordinary notebook."

"What do you mean?" The boy asked, looking back down at the black notebook.

"Any human who's name is written in it..." the shinigami explained, "will die."

The boy froze, shifting his gaze to the shinigami.

"It is a Death Note...and now, it belongs to you..." it's voice trailed off.

"I don't understand..."the boy began, "If you're a shinigami...how are you dying?!"

"There was a war...in the shinigami realm..." it started to explain, "at one point I came into possession of an extra Death Note, and after my side lost, me and my sole comrade fled here..."

"To the human world?" the boy asked, stepping closer.

"Y-yes...we each had an extra note...and...dropped them, to see what would happen..." It stopped and let out a small cry of pain as one of it's limbs became the sand-like substance the boy had noticed earlier. "The two Emperors...they are the ones who possess our two extra Death Notes...that is why they are at war..."

"But why are you dying?!" the boy finally yelled.

"The battle that took place here...you see...me and my comrade split up to follow the humans that picked up our notes...and the human who had mine, told me to come down here and kill his enemy's soldiers..." He paused, "But the other human told my comrade the same thing...we found each other...and fought...and he managed to injure me enough, so that I'll be dead soon..."it groaned again, as yet another part of its body turned to sand.

"Those humans...they manipulated us...they turned us against each other..." It looked up in the boys eyes, "I want you...to kill them..."

The boy stared back at the shinigami, and firmly replied, "I will. After all, they wiped out my village...and murdered my family..." he let his gaze drift down a bit, before looking back up, "But how can I? I don't know their names!"

The shinigami coughed a bit, barely clinging to life, "Q-quick," it said weakly, "Before I die, make the deal with me..."

"The...deal?" The boy tilted his head, confused.

"In exchange for half your remaining lifespan...you'll be given Shinigami eyes, which allow you to see a person's name and lifespan over their faces, though the lifespan is in Shinigami time, so you won't really be able to know how long someone has to live..." it coughed again.

"Half my remaining life-span?" The boy considered it... "My life is basically over anyways..." he looked back at the shinigami, "I'll do it."

"Okay, come here..." it told him.

The boy obeyed and came closer, and the shinigami extended it's remaining hand towards his face, covering his eyes so that all he saw was darkness for a few seconds, and then, it removed it's hand. Everything was...red.

The shinigami started to scream again, louder this time, as another, larger limb disintegrated.

"The-the rules..." it said, "I have to explain-" but it was too late, letting out one final scream, the shinigami completely turned to sand, gone from existence.

The boy sighed heavily, he would have to figure out the rules himself...

At least he had a goal now, a purpose. To avenge the shinigami, and to avenge his family...

He walked to a nearby pond, as the rain finally stopped, and the last rays of sun managed to filter through the clouds. Looking down at his reflection, he got his first glimpse of how the eyes worked...floating above his head, was his name:

_Ryuk __Kobayashi._


End file.
